Earlier today, it was revealed that 20th Century Fox had pushed the release of two of its most highly anticipated films, X-Men: Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants. Soon thereafter, Collider reported that the move for X-Men: Dark Phoenix has come down to scheduling conflicts. Due to the in-demand nature of the film’s cast, the earliest availability to assemble the group for reshoots would be in August or September of this year. By effect, this would leave only a few months for the production to work on the film’s vfx. Thus, 20th Century Fox decided to push back the film so that the production could properly schedule the additional photography and have enough time in post to complete the visual effects. The cause of the delay for The New Mutants however, isn’t as cut and dry.
According to Collider, The New Mutants may be suffering from the ever-rampant creative differences syndrome. Given the recent financial success and critical praise afforded to Fox’s Deadpool and now Oscar nominated Logan, the studio is hoping to replicate the success in part by ensuring that The New Mutants has its own distinct tone and identity. As such, 20th Century Fox is hoping to see The New Mutants become the first straight-up horror movie within the superhero genre. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Josh Boone had said, “We are making a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe. There are no costumes. There are no supervillains. We’re trying to do something very, very different.” Boone added, “We love that Fox wants to make all these different X-Men spinoffs as drastically different as they can.” Unfortunately, the studio feels that The New Mutants isn’t scary enough.
Allegedly, Director Josh Boone provided the studio with a cut of the film that led to the studio ordering reshoots. Collider claims that the studio has ordered specific changes and additional photography to amplify the horror elements of the film. However, Boone has expressed concern over said modifications. Especially since the requested changes may supposedly lead to over 50% of the film being reshot.
If Dark Phoenix is genuinely only dealing with scheduling issues for additional photography, then fine, there’s not much to say about that. However, if Boone is reluctant to make these changes, that’s a serious complication. A film production requires the support and backing of all those involved. So assuming the information is accurate, if the director isn’t willing to be a team player, then maybe it’s time to remove them. However, I personally have doubts as to what’s been outlined regarding Boone. Nevertheless, I still applaud 20th Century Fox for making the smart decision to move the films to account for these issues. Whether it be due to scheduling, creative differences or the like, at the end of the day, it’s the studio that’s at risk of monetary success or monetary loss. Moving the films was the right decision.
